This Side of Fifty: Chidem Inch: The Olympics

Sunday, October 2, 2022

Chidem Inch: The Olympics

Wow… September came and went and I have posted nothing, nada, zilch on this blog.

This happens every September. Since 2017, I have blogged the least in September compared to every other month. This September is the least of all of those.

But in all of these Septembers, including this one, I may have actually written quite a bit, perhaps even more.

Writing? Where? How?

Every Labor Day, the Armenian Youth Federation (AYF) has its Annual Olympic Games. I am part of a reporting and photography team the covers these events for the Armenian Weekly newspaper. All of us, the core team, are alums of the AYF. In recent years, we have added a few current members as well.

What do I write about?

First, a little background: The AYF was founded in 1933 in order to provide the Armenian young people in this great melting pot of a nation an organization and medium to maintain their Armenian heritage in terms of education and political activism both of which were complimented with athletics and social events. The first Olympic Games were held in Brockton, MA in 1934 with a few races held in a grass field. The Olympics became an annual event and quickly grew to become the primary athletic and social event for the organization by a long shot. It takes place every Labor Day Weekend with athletic competitions on Friday, Saturday, and Sunday and amazing dances each of those nights. Profits Olympics Weekend basically supports the entire budget for the AYF. Over the years, golf, tennis, swimming, softball, 3-on-3 basketball, have joined the track and field events which are the core of the competition.

We have been calling our competition the Olympics for so long, we were doing it before the International Olympic Committee copyrighted it. We are one of the few organizations grandfathered in to use the word Olympics. We are also one of the longest, if not the longest, continuously held athletic events in the US. We are quite proud of our Olympics.

From when I was in the AYF, Tom Vartabedian, a journalist by profession, did all the reporting for the AYF Olympics. Not only did he write all the articles, he took all the photos. Angel Perethian would sometimes write a who’s who social piece titled “Angel Over the Olympics.” Tom had a 12-page Olympic Supplement in the 1977 Armenian Weekly. He grew it to 16-pages in subsequent years. He was amazing in so many ways. When Tom decided to retire, he started bring myself and a few others to take over for him. By 2013, I was kind of organizing the writers and photographers for the Armenian Weekly supplement. Tom was diagnosed with an untreatable medical condition in 2015 and passed away in 2016. All of us who took over for him, miss his energy, eternally optimistic view, and inspiration he has provided to us. I penned this piece when he passed away as part of several articles memorializing the wonderful man: Tom Vartabedian and AYF Olympics: One Spirit.